Judge T.S. Ellis, a Reagan appointee to the Federal District Court for Eastern Virginia, is well known for speaking his mind.  Yesterday, in sentencing Paul Manafort, he rebuked Team Mueller's harsh sentence recommendation of 19–24 years' imprisonment as "excessive," and instead set a lot of progressives' hair on fire by imposing a sentence of 47 months and recommended counting the nine months of time served (much of it in solitary confinement, imposed by Judge Amy Berman Jackson in a separate case in D.C. District Court) against that total, meaning just over three years of imprisonment. Paul Manafort's mug shot — before solitary confinement. Judge Ellis, who has read the still secret memos establishing the mandate for Team Mueller, also noted that Manafort is not being sentenced on anything related to Mueller's task: Judge tells the courtroom that Manafort is not being sentenced for anything related...(Read Full Post)